'President Trump understands the importance of accurate weather information, that it can be life and death. 'LISTOS focuses on weather more than climate,' James mused. The Environmental Protection Agency chipped in $25,000 for travel and salaries. The nonprofit Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management gave his team a $70,000 grant to participate in LISTOS this year. He hopes for 2019 funding for a LISTOS followup. James Schwab is a generous team leader, constantly crediting his students accomplishments. Another mystery: when Albany gets hammered by ozone, Philadelphia grime is normally the culprit, not New York City's.Īgencies collecting LISTOS data will now compare and study it. Zhang marveled over how ozone pollution can pound one town leaving another 12 miles away ozone-free. Other research team members are meteorology major Brennan Stutsrim, physics graduate student Bhupal Srestha and student Je Zhang, an air quality expert who chases ozone in the van lab. Long Islanders regularly return sondes to her. Each box bears a tag saying 'UAlbany Air Sampler NOT HARMFUL' with Janie's email. Sondes are made of two vials of potassium iodide, a bit scary looking. Long island police and boaters often fish sondes from the water. An orange plastic parachute softens the box's landing.

Each sonde goes inside a Styrofoam cube that protects the sonde from minus-60 degree stratospheric temperatures and the 100,000 foot plummet to Earth when the balloon explodes. 'The balloons expand from seven feet across when launched to 38 feet when they hit the stratosphere,' said research team member Chris Conover, a meteorology major and mathematician.Įach balloon carries a sensor the size of a beer can called a 'sonde' into the stratosphere to measure ozone pollution. Instead of a plane, James' students use a van with a mobile lab inside and pale peach, 150 cubic foot helium balloons. The ozone pollution that's a threat to Earth-dwellers isn't to be confused with the planet's ozone layer, which Janie says 'absorbs some harmful rays.' 'Ozone pollution harmful to human lungs forms when pollutants from cars, power plants, factories, chemical plants react chemically with sunlight and water,' Janie Schwab explained. 'NASA has a plane that flies out of Langley, Virginia to collect air quality data over cities along the I-95 corridor. 'We're tracking where the winds blow air pollution, measuring the ozone, that is produced by the New York City metro area but could end up hundreds of miles away,' James Schwab said. She is now the research technician for James' team, which is busy at work this summer. Janie earned an astronomy degree from Wellesley College and was Dudley Observatory director for nine years. James earned his doctorate in chemical physics at Harvard and became senior research associate at UAlbany's Atmospheric Sciences Research Center with expertise in air pollution, stratospheric ozone depletion, ground-level ozone pollution and climate change. The Styrofoam box is small but protects the sonde from 60 below zero temps in the stratosphere and the 100,000 foot drop to Earth when the balloon explodes.

(Paul Buckowski/Times Union) Paul Buckowski/Times Union Show More Show Less 2 of5 The balloons expand to 38 feet across as they soar into the stratosphere carrying an ozone-measuring sensor called a sonde. The balloon, which was seven to eight feet in diameter when launched from the ground, expanded to around 40 feet in diameter at around 100,000 feet in the air before the balloon exploded and the parachute carried the box to the ground. Janie Schwab holds the parachute that was attached to the box and the students hold what is left of the balloon that was attached to the parachute and box. Jim Schwab is holding the styrofoam box that contains the ozone measuring device. 1 of5 Jim Schwab, foreground right, a research professor at the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at UAlbany, his wife, Janie Schwab, a research technician with ASRC, along with, recent graduate Chris Conover, far left, graduate student Bhupal Shrestha, second from left, senior Brennan Stutsrim, third from left, and graduate student Jie Zhang, pose for a photo with parts of the ozonesonde at the college on Tuesday, Aug.

Ualbany physics drop box